1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to improvements in shipping, tracking and delivering package, envelope, freight and cargo shipments, as well as communicating and managing shipping information across the globe, in ways which significantly increases the velocity of shipping information across the network, and reduces delivery time, and thereby improving access and enabling the reaching of goals that improve current conditions and future prospects.
2. Brief Description of the State of the Art
As described in the landmark study, “How Greater Access Is Changing The World”, conducted by SRI International and sponsored by Federal Express, the concept “access” is defined as the catalytic process that enables interactions, contacts, and exchanges among people, businesses, and nations. While markets represent platforms for transactions to take place, access provides the means for markets to operate. Gaining access enables us to reach goals that improve our current condition and future prospects. Those with access to what they need or desire can achieve their aspirations, and those without such access will inevitably fail to reach their full potential. Access indicates ability—the ability to accomplish a broad range of actions, from attaining physical presence to communicating, and from acquiring to using. Access also implies connection, which has profound implications for the way we conduct our lives, businesses, and governments.
Over the past three centuries, access has had a measurable impact on people's lives, business development cycles, and the economic growth of nations. Individuals once had access only to those things within walking distance. As a result, their choices and capabilities were severely constrained by lack of access. A major reason for the emergence and growth of villages and towns was the desire of inhabitants to gain access—access to others, to security, to specialized trades, and to other factors associated with human commerce and interaction. As transportation systems, technologies, and communications capabilities evolved and networks expanded in breadth and sophistication, degrees of access continuously increased. These changes led to the creation of advanced civilizations and, eventually, to the integration of all societies into a global society.
Levels of access are by no means uniform, but rather vary significantly among individuals, nations, and substantive areas (e.g., products, services, information, etc.). Nevertheless, the march toward continuously greater access is accelerating and inevitable. For example, within just a few years after the invention of computers and the Internet, we are rapidly approaching near-perfect access to certain types of information. The introduction of innovations to transmit physical objects and information has resulted in increasing access, which has risen exponentially in recent years.
While every generation has witnessed improvement in access, and future generations are expected to have even more access than we have now, people today benefit from a unique level of access to physical things, to information, and to each other. The expectations, behavior, and power of access are exerting profound changes in the ways in which people, businesses, communities, and nations operate, giving rise to both considerable challenges and major opportunities.
As described in “How Greater Access Is Changing The World”, the process of generating access revolves around three functional variables: space, time, and information.
Space represents the distance between the entity seeking access and the “thing” (physical or informational) being sought. It involves geography and the physical locations of supply and demand. Supplies that are nearby are normally easier to access than those in distant locations. Access dramatically reduces the economic constraint of geographic distance and allows entirely new patterns of production, consumption, and economic development.
Time centers on the amount of time required to obtain that which is being sought. Access not only creates the ability to obtain goods, services, information, etc., in an increasingly short period of time, but also allows the orchestration of delivery, meaning delivery in the specific time horizon desired by the user/customer. Both time-related changes have profound implications for consumer and producer behavior.
Information is anything that reduces uncertainty. Since uncertainty affects the consequences of decisions, information aids decision-making by helping one to choose between alternatives. Information may be in the form of facts, opinions, or algorithms that are capable of being transmitted and reproduced. Increasingly, information is available in digital form.
At its core, access can be explained in the following formula, f(T, S, I)=A, wherein access (A) is a function of time (T), space (S), and information (I).
Achieving access is determined by each of these parameters, or “independent variables.” In various ways, these parameters collectively establish degrees of access:
(1) One consequence of increasing access is the reduction of time required to gain access, thus increasing available time. Access also facilitates the orchestration of products and services provision so that consumers/users are able to obtain what they desire in the timeframe they prefer, rather than the timeframe convenient for the producer or deliverer;
(2) If the desired object is physically located out of one's reach, then access will be denied. Improved access has the effect of collapsing space (or alternatively, increasing usable space, since actors can operate effectively within larger areas); and
(3) Without information about the existence or location of the desired object, then one will not obtain it. Increasing information generally expands degrees of access.
Thus, “access” is generated by reducing time and space, and by providing relevant shipping and billing information to customers anywhere and anytime throughout the world. The degree of access generated on a package shipping, tracking and delivery network depends upon the degree of reduction in time and space and the level of information provided.
The need to reduce time and space in the shipping industry to improve access and gain competitive advantage has created great incentives for international couriers to develop powerful Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery networks designed to process package information and deliver packages to their destinations, faster and more efficiently than their competitors.
In FIG. 1, there is shown a state-of-the-art conventional Internet-based global-extensive shipping, tracking and delivery network 1. As illustrated by the network GUI screens of FIGS. 2A1 through 2B6, this state-of-the-art Web-based shipping, Tracking and Delivery Network offers shippers and customers several flexible methods of shipping and tracking, and monitoring customs clearance of package/envelope and freight shipments (via ground and air transportation) as well as immediate notification about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet, or wireless methods, with and without use of shipment tracking numbers.
In particular, one or more shipments can be scheduled for pickup by way of several optional services supported on the network of FIG. 1, including (i) packages/envelope shipments that are scheduled for the same-day or next-day pickup, (ii) ground shipments that are scheduled for pickup on the next business day, or any business day up to two weeks in advance, (iii) freight shipments (over 150 lbs) that are scheduled for pickup, and the like.
As shown in FIG. 2B1, package/envelope shippers can (i) track package/envelope shipments using the system's shipment tracking number (or Door Tag Number) to receive immediate notifications about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet and/or wireless methods, (ii) track package/envelope shipments using the shipper's account number and address to receive immediate notifications about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet and/or wireless methods, without providing the system a tracking or reference number, and (iii) track package/envelope shipments using an alternative reference (i.e. entering the account number and/or the address of the shipper) and display the current status of all shipments matched to the account number and/or address, monitor all shipments through reliable status updates for all incoming, outgoing and third party shipments, and receive immediate notification about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet, or wireless methods.
The U.S. Government can track military shipments using the Federal Government's (e.g. military shipper's) Transportation Control Number (TCN), and display the current status of all shipments matched to the account number and/or address, monitor all shipments through reliable status updates for all incoming, outgoing and third party shipments, and receive immediate notification about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet, or wireless methods.
Also, cargo shippers can track cargo shipments using Cargo Tracking Numbers (including carrier identification) and display the current status of all shipments matched to the account number and/or address, monitor all shipments through reliable status updates for all incoming, outgoing and third party shipments, and receive immediate notification about clearance delays, attempted deliveries, proofs of delivery, etc via email, Internet, or wireless methods.
However, as illustrated in FIG. 3, even with such advanced shipping, tracking and delivery information management capabilities supported on the conventional network of FIG. 1, shipments which do not bear network-assigned shipping labels, cannot be processed until they are picked up and driven to the first scanning point in the network (e.g. shipping and delivery terminal, or sorting and routing hub), at which they are relabeled at a package labeling station through a tedious process requiring the reading of original shipping documents, the generation of new network-assigned labels bearing bar-coded shipment tracking numbers, and the application of these printed labels onto the packages. It cannot be overstated that this package re-labeling process requires a significant amount of time, causes significant delays in shipment delivery, and significantly increases the overall cost of shipment delivery, world over.
Recently, US Patent Publication No. 20006/0158678 to Angrick disclosed an automated document image capture and processing system, for capturing a 2D image of shipping documents at the point of pickup, compressing produced digital images, and transmitting digital images of shipping documents to a predetermined processing center. While the disclosed role of such point-of-pickup shipping document image capture and transmission is to reduce the delay in processing such documents, and thus lessen the burden on the truck driver (e.g. including delayed or refused payments, delayed or missed shipping opportunities and the like), there is no specific disclosure, teaching or suggestions in this prior art patent publication on how such point-of-pickup image capture of and transmission can, will or might help improve the operational efficiency of conventional Internet-based shipping, tracking and delivery networks, and the various services currently supported thereover.
Thus there is a great need in the art for an improved method of and means for capturing, transmitting and processing digital images of package/envelope and freight/cargo shipping information, as well as efficiently and rapidly delivering such shipments to their destinations, within an improved Web-based shipping, tracking and delivery network, so as to overcome the shortcomings and drawbacks of prior art methodologies, systems and apparatus.